Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1887-01-15
FORT WORTH TEXAS. SATURDAY, JANUARY Is,
wished the train would run off and kills

>
her.
She registered at the hotel in Rich
mond under an assumed name. A gem
tleman called for her at night, whom the
porter says was Ctuverius, but they were
not seen in TIE hotel together, the only
other witness giving testimony as to mis-
identity that night being a small negro
boy who insists that he recognized him
! as he got in the street car.
Here the testiBC py ends. Nobody else
sIears to him so fas as that night was
concerned. The only thing that connects
him with tie scene of the tragedy is q
watch key, which has been identified az
{ being very mach ike the one he lad, but
when this bit of testimony was crestiug q
sensation. ClEVerius' brother produced
another key, almost fac smile CT the
} one found, and swOre shat it was his
! brothers.. The pris ner was shown to
] have been in Richmond at the same time
, that Lillian Madison was there, and his
| failure TO account for his time while IN
| K chmond helped no little in begettiug the
! impression of his guilt. 1t was shown
! that on the occasion of previous visit to
| Richmond he had in the day time visited
two houses OF prostitution with a lady
whom some of the inmates swore to be
the image OF the photographs of Fannie
Lillian Madison, and, worse still, piece
of horribly obscene doggerel, called "0u
the Delaware" was found in the poor
girls trunk, and written in the hand of
Cluverius. The poetry in short simply
described with disgusting minutip the
seduction OF gill on the Delaware rver.
Sticklers for law, however, shrugged
| their shoulders and said while all this
was very bad, yet there was no legal evil
dence that the prisoner had seduced his
cousin, or that he had murdered her
People We're simply iuferring that because
the young man had become engaged to a
rich girl he wanted to get his cousin out
of the way.
Nor Was there any legal evidence that
he ever intended to marry Miss Madison
But there was a note which Miss Madison
had given to q negro boy at the hotel,
| with directions to wait for an answer
The boy came back and told the clerk he
could not find the party to whom it was
addressed. The clerk put it in the desk,
and, when Miss Madison did not come
back, he tore il up and threw the bits in
the waste basket. That note was in
pencil, in Miss MadisGn's handwriting,
and was addressed to Mr.. T j. Cluverius
Il read:
will be there as soon as possible, so
please wait for me.
Lawyers shrugged their shoulders
again and said people might infer as much
al tiny pleased, but there was no legal
evidence to convict Cluverius with this
note. There was no legal evidence to
show that he ever received it. But the
jury Inferred, and acted upon their infer
ences and found CluveriuS guilty, and
though the lawyers cried that it wa i
traYesty on justice, the verdict was re
ceiyed with cheers by the great throng
outside, and it was aftirmed and reaftirn-
co by tine highest court in the state.
So Cluvrrius is dead. He all alorg
smiling SAID he would ultimately get off
Cluverlus was wonderful psychological
study. st college, when he studied law,
ne was known as Smiling Muses. be-
cause of his way of always smiling. He
was considered intelligent and very
moral. When he went home he was
superintendent of the Baptist Sun
day school and himself a teacher
of a Furnishing blble-class, mauyd
Of whom visited Richmond to
see him hanged. Then he was genuine
lady-kiIler. He was engaged to three
StItS dG OEe LlUe. lie was the most |
SOught-after beau in the neighoOrhood, |
and yet at that time he was writing OBJ |
scene dOggerel 10 his girl cousin. He |
sang:
On Jordan's stormy banks | stand
And casta wishful eye, !,
at the time they were escorting him to !
Richmond. 1t is singular coincidence |
that at the last execution in this district |
this very hymn was sung on the gallows. |
Ciuverius' Jail life was spent in an eX-
emplsry way He was great reader, |
and devoted much time to his Bible, and |
he prayed devoutly upon rising and re-
firing. He had an aesthetic fondness for !
flowers, too many of which were In his
cell. He was small man, but was said |
by his friends to be strong. If the only
reasonable theory of the murder is
accepted he must have been a powerful
man, for according to that he would, after
killing his cousin, have been ccmpell, d |
to carry her BODY up steeD embankment |
and then lift it over spiked fence to
throw it in the water where it was found
1t has been COntendrd that he must
have had help. Who helped him? Who
could have had an object in helping him?
One of the negro witnesses testfieI to
having seen the poor girl with q certain
very range-looking old tuntryman the
night before her dLath. The murder is
still mystery. Much yet remains to be
disclosed,